On Friday night, a US Navy Hercules C130T number 16-4998 arrived at Shannon coming from Joint Base McGuire in US. It spent the overnight at the airport and took off on Saturday March 8th about 14.25pm and flew on to Zagreb Croatia.

Also on Friday, a US Navy C40 number 16-5829 landed at 10.21pm coming from Portsmouth, with a stop also at Bangor Maine. It spent 2 overnights at Shannon and took off this morning (Sunday) March 9th heading towards the Middle East.

Another US Navy C40 number 16-9036 landed at Shannon about 04.16am on Sunday 9th also coming from Portsmouth close Portsmouth Naval Air Station.

These C40 aircraft are designed to take passengers or military cargo or a combination of both.

At our monthly peace vigil at Shannon today we asked the Gardai who were assembled to block us from getting to the airport to inspect the C40. It is is quite possible that it was carrying weapons, in contravention of the conditions under which the government says these planes are given permission to land. It is also quite likely that the plane and its personnel are part of the ongoing US support for the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

To the best of our knowledge no effort was made to inspect the plane, or indeed any other US military plane that landed at Shannon over the last week, or month, or two decades. The Gardai avoid going near them, while going to great lengths to stop others from doing anything that impedes the war criminals passing through the airport. 

Children are being killed intentionally by Israeli snipers. And the Irish government and their 'guardians of the peace', the Garda Síochána, fail every day in their duty to protect them.